Saturday Morning Rant – The Word “Foodie”

I don’t know what it is about the word, I don’t know why it causes me to make a nasty face when I hear or read the word, but the word foodie irritates me.  WHY!? I want to like it, it’s a pretty ok description. I know I can be very cynical sometimes, but I FRIGGIN’ HATE THIS WORD!

Am I alone in this food-loving world with this irritation? Am I the only one who is obsessed w/ eating, learning about and making food that hates the word foodie? Please try and convince me that either 1) I’m crazy and I should embrace the word because _________ or 2) Amy, you’re totally right on with being completely weirded out with the word – it’s cheesy.

Any comments would be received with open ears.

8 thoughts on “Saturday Morning Rant – The Word “Foodie”

  1. Hello!
    I thought I’d better say something as ‘foodieguide’, author of the World Foodie Guide! Not that I’m defending the word, but I can’t really think of an alternative. ‘Gourmet’ sounds too posh to me. ‘Foodie’ on the other hand seems to embrace all people. You don’t have to have expensive tastes and only love truffles to be a foodie, whereas that’s what the word gourmet implies. Anyway, I’d love to hear about any alternatives to the word ‘foodie’!

    Helen Yuet Ling aka foodie guide

  2. Hi, Helen! We love your blog! You are so right on about the fact that the term is so much better sounding than “gourmet”. And I guess foodie does describe a person with all different types of tastes… but does it? I feel like foodie still describes someone who is knowledgeable about food and it’s culture in a different way than someone who just likes to eat. Does someone who goes to Applebees and Olive Garden every week (sorry, no offense!!!) and loves to eat able to consider themselves a foodie? Does foodie have a hint of snobbery in it too? I just took a quick poll of 5 people and they all said yes. Hmmmm… a new word? How about “gourmet” with a hard “t”… kind of takes the pretentiousness out of the word? What about what I call myself – “Girl Who Likes To Eat”. God, this is tough! But thought provoking! Thanks, Helen for you input!

  3. Hmmm….I wildly vascillate between hating this word, for the folks who like to oh-so-modestly lower their eyes as they coyly refer to themselves as ‘foodies’ upon buying something exotic like, oh maybe a mango or a pack of prosciutto; to finding that I just think it’s ducky when I meet those people who unabashedly roll their eyes and say ‘yeah I’m a foodie…so???’ and their grocery cart makes me want to kidnap them and tie them to my stove.

    Foodie? Hmph…I just don’t know. Same fluctuating thoughts occur as when I am referred to as a ‘wine snob’ when I refuse a glass of Chardonnay (*gag* even french chard makes me cringe but hand me a viognier or torrontes and I’m all for that!) or even worse, a ‘coffee snob’ when I refuse to patronize anything Arab in my daily cup. I guess it comes down to how it is viewed and herein lies my dilemma. Too many people use the term too loosely to describe themselves when their best effort at cooking involves a microwave and a plastic bag. This isn’t being a foodie. But am I a foodie when I take a bite of cake and instantly recognize it as being from a box, then decide I would rather not fill my bod with all those chemicals??? Am I a foodie because I make food my priority and nutrition a must? Scratch pancakes! I’m a foodie? Scratch muffins? Scratch tomato sauce?? Does this make me a foodie?

    Six of one, half a dozen of the other, but it’s not the best defined term, and too many people were it as a badge of pride even when it clearly isn’t earned. Call me a foodie, that’s fine, but I damn well earned the title.

  4. Well said, Kate! I get called a food snob, drink snob and music snob all the time and it does make me mad because that connotes that i;m trying to be better than someone! Usually, I’m just trying to help someone understand the deeper meaning in why I don’t like (ok, I can get dramatic sometimes… I may say I hate/loathe something or just tell them their nuts) something.

    But you are so right about the whole wearing the word/term as a badge of honor. Some haven’t earned the right. Just like Rachel Ray doesn’t deserve the right to say she’s chef (or cool/funny/talented….).

    Let’s just put it this way… my grandmother and great grandmother cooked almost everything from scratch. They lived the food of their culture. They probably would laugh at the word foodie. They were just Italian women surviving! Maybe it’s cause we live in a world of fast food, processed food, mall food-courts, take-out, no patience and Olive Gardens that we feel like we should be patted on the back when we chose to not live our life that way. Do people in Italy, Spain, China and France know and use the word foodie (or the language’s equivalent)? I’m curious.

    Great comment.

  5. I TOTALLY agree! LOL! It’s completely overused. You KNOW when someone who refers to themselves as a “foodie” then proceeds to make a cream-of-crap-concoction…the word sucks.

  6. I don’t really like it at all when it is said aloud, but somehow in writing on the internet it doesn’t really bother me. I don’t really love it, but I do find myself typing it every once in a while.

  7. Geesh you all sound like snobs to me LOL or maybe your just over trained?

    Foodie is a word that may describe anyone “into all kinds of food and the gadgets” that make them cook better. They probably love to explore the culinary world as such and will take any opportunity they can to try something new while gaining more knowledge.
    They also may have above average knowledge of food but may not be “trained” individuals in the formal sense of culinary arts.
    Yes as with any new catchword, it can be overused and many people will suddenly “jump on the band wagon” but seriously, why does it really bother anyone that it is being used at all? Does it diminish the trained senses?

    Just wondering from someone who considers themselves a “foodie” LOL
    PS Nice blog 😉

  8. If you call yourself a foodie, it is repugnant and you are an arrogant jerk.

    If you refer to another person as a foodie, I guess you just lack some elegance in expressing things verbally.

    Overall, the word makes me cringe.

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